ARTICLE SPOTLIGHT

Written by a team of veteran Gamers and Gamemasters, Gnome Stew is a widely read gaming blog with multiple awards and close to 3,000 articles. We’re dedicated to helping gamers have more fun at the gaming table. Over 2 million visitors can’t be wrong!

What do you do when you're faced with metagaming, both on a DM level or a player level? Let us know here!

RP COMMUNITIES SPOTLIGHT

Community RP Story Arc Coming to Rift

Attention Faeblighters! As we do every summer, The Perennial Flame Guild will be hosting a shard story this summer.

It's kicking off on Saturday, July 9th and will last about 6(ish) weeks. EVERYONE IS WELCOMED to participate, new rp'ers and veterans alike! We'll have events and rp during the day and at night to accommodate as many people's schedules as possible. We will have a large array of events, including but not limited to low conflict, high conflict, research, subterfuge, intrigue, and social!

IC and OOC information for the story will be available and frequently updated on FaeblightUnited.enjin.com

Anything can happen in rp and this will be a great time. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to send a message to Margot on enjin!

You’re a spy. Well, no you’re not. Thankfully you have a group of friends with you to help you think like one.

You’re locked in the office of an ambassador in a foreign country.

The clock is ticking. There’s only an hour to find a cipher that will save the world. You need to unravel a series of puzzles and break codes, hidden around the desk, bookcases and locked drawers.

If you don’t find the cipher in time, the world won’t end. You’re not really a spy. You’re a customer at Big Sky Breakout, one of two brand-new business that are bringing the trend of escape rooms to Missoula.

The rooms are designed to create a suspenseful group activity, a “live experience” in an era of screen-based entertainment.

The scenarios vary as widely: some have zombies or mad scientists, others are jail breaks. Big Sky Breakout has a jail break. And so does Break Out of Missoula, which is opening on Stephens Avenue at the beginning of next month.

— Cory Walsh

- TABLETOP

English-speaking fans of Germany’s The Dark Eye pen & paper RPG have a good reason to be happy today, since the Kickstarter that was created to fund an English translation of the game materials has been successful. In fact, it’s been so successful that it passed its meager $10,000 goal with a staggering $147,512 in total money pledged.

Have you ever had that weird sensation that you’re not actually playing the same game as everyone else at the table? You’ve described the scene: a noble and his retinue are in a large hall. The noble is about to engage the party in conversation, almost certainly to hand out a mission. And then the rogue chimes in with, “When he starts talking, I’m going to try to pick the noble’s pocket.” You wait for someone else at the table to point out how ridiculous that would be, but they’re all looking at you as if it’s a great idea…

- MMORPG

ARCHITECT SPOTLIGHT

Not only could you have your own house in Star Wars Galaxies, you could live in a whole community of players in designated player cities. ... As more and more people declared citizenship in a city, more civic buildings were unlocked so eventually all the amenities of a pre-built NPC populated city would be available for use.

These cities were far from static though. Taxes were collected weekly, and elections for Mayor were held every three weeks. This ended up with player cities establishing a complete closed-circuit economy, with weapons, armor, goods, and services manufactured by and sold to citizens that lived in the city.

While other MMOs might have more feature rich individual abodes, none have replicated the ability to create a player-built community that Star Wars Galaxies had.

— Brittany Vincent

FINAL FANTSY XIV

Final Fantasy XIV is one of the most beautiful MMO’s we’ve ever played, and its player housing matches. Once you master one of your classes and reach the rank of Second Lieutinant in one of the Grand Companies you can purchase a plot of land to make a house of your own.

You can furnish your homestead with tables, lamps, plants, wall mountings, carpets, and change the wallpaper, flooring, and lighting as well. If you’re the outdoorsy type you can also plant a private garden to raise a variety of plants you can use for crafting.

— Brittany Vincent

WORLD OF WARCRAFT

Though World of Warcraft doesn’t have player housing per se, the latest expansion Warlords of Draenor added Garrisons. Garrisons are your very own little town. You can recruit and fill it with NPC’s, and add buildings and assign those NPCs to jobs.

However, your garrison can also be invaded at random, and it’ll be up to you to make sure it’s properly defended.

— Brittany Vincent

ULTIMA ONLINE

Ultima Online may not be as pretty as the other entries on this list, but when it comes to house customization, it can’t be beat. From single-roomed cottage to sprawling castle, and custom build structures, players are only limited by plot size and imagination.

Ultima Online takes the cake for variety of player houses available, and is still going strong after 17 years online.

— Brittany Vincent

EVE ONLINE

While the player-owned starbases of EVE Online don’t have the features of traditional player housing, they’re the catalyst that binds the game’s corporation system.

While they may not have posh rooms and fancy decoration options, the Starbases of EVE Online serve a more important purpose to the players that use them than any other entry on this list.

— Brittany Vincent

RPHQ's UPCOMING CONTENT

Lore Implications: Elder Scrolls - Mycroft and Pooch will discuss the convoluted world and history of the Elder Scrolls!

Roleplay Radio Pilot - CanadianMan and TheHumanFloyd will give you an idea of what RPHQ's new podcast is all about. Spoiler: it's about you!

RPHQ's LATEST CONTENT

Writing Contest Begins - Write a story about one of your main characters (be it from roleplay or your personal writing) from the perspective of someone who is not thinking well of them! More info: http://rphq.enjin.com/forum/m/35146228/viewthread/27669418-writing-contest-julyaugust-2016/page/1

New Board, RP Emergency Room - Seek advice from more experienced RPers on any number of problems you may be having in your roleplay here: http://rphq.enjin.com/forum/m/35146228/viewforum/7188066

New Board, Creative Workshop - Have an idea you'd like to flesh out a little more? Be it RP, your novel or anything else, come here to brainstorm and bounce ideas off of people: http://rphq.enjin.com/forum/m/35146228/viewforum/7188065